Albisola is a nice little town of the Italian
riviera, rising on the Sansobbia rivers mouth,
in a long plain valley that joins Liguria and
Piemonte together In her district there are
many clay mines, fully operated in the last
centuries.
Just because of this raw materials' wealth and
geographical conformation of the valley joining
region with the neighbouring countries (Piemonte
by land and France by sea), the figuline art
has been flourishing in Albisola since the XVI
century.
So, during four centuries of history, the Alisola
ceramics, that had rightfrom the start an extraordinary
diffusion in a lot of european countries, mantained
and renforced their image of precious ceramics.Just
in this context Giuseppe Bausin Mazzotti rented
in 1903 some rooms in the old Pozzo Garitta
village, in Albisola.
There he started on he's own a ceramics production
founding the "Giuseppe Mazzotti manufactory".
By doing so, he became the fouder of tbe Mazzotti
ceramists family.
Thenceforth the events of tbe "Mazzotti
manufactory" have been connected with many
indelebile page of history and ceramics arts
of our century.
We should mention tbe profond link with the
second italian futurism, I mean particularly
the activity carried out near the Mazzotti manufactory
by the underwriters of tbe Futurist Manifesto
in 1938, like Marinetti, Diulgheroff, Farfa,
Fillla, Strada.
We should also mention the extraordinary period
of the fifties, when some artists, like Fontana,
Jorn, Sassu, after they created their wonderful
ceramics pottery, signing the beginning of the
"informal", were used to meet themselves
at the tables of the Caffe' Bar Testa, in the
Albisola central square, to compare them and
exchange their ideas.
Furthermore, near that artistic production,
we have to remember too the handmade pottery
manufacture of the famous Alblsola ceramics
pottery. Its most important and well-known style
is called "Antico Savona". The name
of this decoration comes from the name of the
capital of the provincie, where Albisola is
in, that is the nearest town of Savona. The
"Antico Savona" stile is recognizable
by its chromatism: only blue colour gradations
on a white background, with ancient castles
or mythological figures as decoration, surrounded
with herbages and floral patterns.
Torido Mazzotti, the firstborn of the founder
Giuseppe Bausin Mazzotti, was a finished expert
and an entusiastic witness of all thc great
artistic events. In 1960 Torido, after a collaboration
lasted for years with his brother, nicknamed
"Tullio d'Albisola; continued on her own
the activity of the manufactory, maintaining
the father name "Giuseppe Mazzotti manufactury".It
was in 1988 that the manufactury changed its
name. It happened in according to the wish of
Torido son, Giuseppe Bepi Mazzotti, the new
mamager of the laboratories.
The new name was "Factory Home Museum Giuseppe
Mazzotti 1903". That's because in the nice
recidence on the Sansobia mouth, planed in 1935
by Torido Mazzotti and the architect Nicolay
Diulgheroff, tehere were the family's home,
the pottery laboratories, an expositive room
and an interesting museum collection opened
to the public, containig about 200 works by
the famous artist, who have been frequenting
Mazzotti's workshop since 1903.
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